Chapter 40: Discussing goals
After an entire night of cleaning, we didn't find a single sight of the lightning artifact. It was described as a stone in the ancient runes so, the artifact could be a random rock in a flowing river. But since the level of magic amplification has been the same for hundreds of years, that was unlikely.
There was another reason I was especially combing through all the politically and historically important places. The location of the artifact I would find next. The water artifact was in the kingdom of Elisbonear, or the Trident of Elisban, the legendary item passed down from king to king. It made more sense for the almighty artifacts to be a part of a legacy.
We left the Lighting Palace with the rest of the cleaning group, masks, and caps hiding our faces. All the gear, including the carts, was carried over from a small office, 10 minutes away from the Lightning Palace.
Walking at the end of the line, Nea and I pushed our heavy carts along the furbished roads of Xeonodan. The group neared a sharp turn. We split off from the group and turned towards an alley. Heaps of garbage occupied the dark corner.
I pulled out my coat and bag from the cart and changed from the cleaning uniform. Nea had worn her cleaning garbs over her previous clothes, so she was quicker. She pulled out the unconscious man from her cart and threw him over the garbage heap. I did the same to the guy in my cart before kicking the cart down. I pulled out a bottle of Absinthe from my bag and poured it all over the two guys, chanting "what a waste" in my heart over and over.
We left the alley and walked back to the hotel.
"Breakfast?" I asked.
"Dinner," she said.
"Haha, very well. Dinner it is."
**
Evening. We were now again in the hotel room, discussing our actions from here on.
"Do you think a cat can kill a shark?"
"No, but a turtle probably can. Its shell is reinforced with earth magic after all."
Ok, we weren't discussing it, but we tried to! I don't know how the conversation switched to shark-killing cats. Thinking again, that seems awfully scary. I would definitely keep a cat like that as far away from me as possible.
"Turtles and Sharks aside, what were we talking about?"
"Ah! Our plans!" I went over to the mini wine cellar in our room and took out two glasses. Pouring a vintage wine that came complimentary with the suite room. "Let me point out our goals here, alright?"
"Go on."
"First and foremost, we need to get our hands on the lighting artifact. The main goal that we absolutely need to achieve within a week." I handed one glass to her and walked around the room, my hands spread in wide gestures. "For that, we will have to visit most of the important places here. From government buildings to museums. And if those don't work out, we will have to dirty our hands and check for any hidden facilities."
"Sleepless nights ahead. We should just concede this artifact," Nea sighed. What a lazy dork.
"Not. Happening!" I clicked my tongue at Nea. "Second goal, equally important, is getting intel and documents. This one we have to do if we want to live. It's our escape route."
"You mean the deal you made with the Doves?"
The deal differed from what I told her, but we will get around that.
"That very deal indeed. Now. As for why we have only a week, and why we need an escape route, It's really a worst-case scenario assumption." I pointed at Nea and sat down.
On cue, Nea continued. "The hitmen behind us. It's a worst-case scenario because, while no one will think we escaped the explosion of Xeonodan express. But there could be a few like the Barrs who don't really know much about us and just follow our tracks."
"Perfecto!" I said. "These are the ends. As for the means, we really have little to go on."
"Uh-hm, but that's why we spent our time buttering up the Illychs, right? We already have an audience with the president. Given our relationship with the Illychs, we could use their name to enter a lot of restricted areas."
"Even if we don't use their name, the trip to their home was more than fruitful enough. We are lucky that people in administration keep maps of their workplaces."
"Heh, I think that's more of a powerful position thing, you know? Like to make the president's office look more filled?"
"That would be so weird. In any case, we are off to a couple of museums for now." I said, as I got up from the chair and got ready to go outside.
"Say, Ivan. Doesn't Xeonodan have quite a few street animals?" Nea, too, got up and prepared to leave.
"I guess? Speaking of, do you think a stray dog can kill a shark?"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone